Alcohol Use Among Young Adults in the Military : Risk Factors

by National Institute of Health

(Page 2 of 4)

The likelihood of heavy drinking was significantly higher after adjusting for six sociodemographic variables: branch of service (Army and Marine Corps personnel compared with Air Force personnel); gender; race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic Whites compared with non-Hispanic African Americans and those in the "other" racial/ethnic category); education (those with a high school education or less compared with college graduates); age (those ages 21 to 25 compared with those age 35 or older); and marital status (those who were single or married with their spouse absent compared with those who were married with their spouse present). (The "other" category includes all people not classified elsewhere, such as Native Americans or Asians.) In addition to these sociodemographic risk factors for heavy drinking among military personnel, the military's workplace culture and alcohol availability also may influence drinking practices in this population.

Workplace Culture

Research has shown that groups of people who work together, whether in small teams or larger organizations, develop shared beliefs and practices that can influence alcohol use. Workplace culture in the military, just as in other occupations, can be a risk factor for heavy alcohol use. For example, the workplace culture can influence beliefs about acceptable drinking contexts (most notably, drinking rituals with coworkers before, during, or after work); as well as drinking behavior (e.g., number of drinks, openly showing the effects of alcohol, getting into fights, arguing with supervisors, sleeping on the job, coming to work with a hangover) and expectations about the positive or negative consequences of drinking.

Ames and colleagues recently studied the influence of workplace culture on drinking practices in various military settings of the Navy. Face-to-face interviews with young Navy personnel revealed established drinking rituals and routines as well as elements of the work environment that encouraged drinking at work on land bases and during deployment liberties (i.e., shore leave). For example, young sailors viewed drinking with coworkers during the work week as an appropriate coping mechanism in response to stress, boredom, loneliness, and lack of other recreational activities. The respondents described heavy (i.e., five drinks or more for men and four drinks or more for women per typical drinking occasion) and binge drinking behavior after work, and especially drinking on liberty during deployment, as part of a cultural tradition. (Binge drinking was defined in this study as five drinks or more for men and four drinks or more for women within a 2-hour period.) On deployment liberty, binge drinking and drinking to the point of intoxication were not necessarily viewed as inappropriate or punishable behavior, unless sailors were too intoxicated to return to ship at the designated time. The researchers found that cultural norms for drinking during shore leave3 were significantly associated with frequent heavy drinking, the number of days on which binge drinking occurred, and the average amount of alcohol consumed daily. (3 Cultural norms were based on the respondent's perceptions about whether his or her supervisor, friends, or coworkers would disapprove or approve of drinking during shore leave and how many drinks the respondent thought his or her supervisor, friends, or coworkers usually had when they drank.)

Alcohol Availability

Another factor that may influence heavy and binge drinking among young adults in the military is the physical and social availability of alcohol. Alcohol availability is a known risk factor for increased alcohol use in the general population and in occupational settings. For example, the personnel interviewed in the Navy study reported that alcohol and opportunities for drinking were easily available both in foreign ports (where the U.S. minimum legal drinking age usually does not apply) and on U.S. bases. On base, beer and spirits are stacked for display at the entry to the post exchange. Navy underage recruits reported that they had easy access to alcohol in bars, in the barracks, or in hotel rooms near the base. On shore leave in foreign ports, alcohol was reportedly inexpensive, bars were located near the point of disembarkation, few ports had underage drinking laws, and most sailors who wanted to drink organized drinking groups before disembarking.

Strategies to Prevent Alcohol Problems

As demonstrated in the Navy study, factors contributing to alcohol use among young adults in the military may include established drinking cultures that feature drinking rituals and traditional celebrations, expectations about heavy drinking after work and while on leave, drinking to cope and as a recreational activity, and the social and physical availability of alcohol. Strategies to prevent alcohol misuse and related problems in this population, therefore, may attempt to target these factors.

Current strategies to prevent alcohol problems among military personnel include instituting and enforcing policies that regulate alcohol availability and pricing, deglamorizing alcohol use, and promoting personal responsibility and good health.

About the Author

NIH is the nation's medical research agency - making important medical discoveries that improve health and save lives. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.